


Tangled messes

by SelenicSoul83



Series: 12 days of Christmas 2017 [3]
Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Gen, Platonic Relationships, What else is new, mostly Phil being a klutz
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-15
Updated: 2017-12-15
Packaged: 2019-02-15 05:37:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13024368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SelenicSoul83/pseuds/SelenicSoul83
Summary: He hadn’t been ready to run into some of his downstairs neighbours, especially not when they asked him if those were his Christmas lights that had spooked the living daylights out of them.“I’m so sorry. I’ll be more careful.”Not that Phil had dropped the lights. They’d simply fallen. On their own.





	Tangled messes

The wind was cool, the sun was shining, people were walking their dogs, and a whole string of Christmas lights had just fallen down the balcony.

Phil still stood looking down over the railing when Dan called for him.

“The fuck are you doing out there?”

Phil turned around, pouting and pointing down at the ground. “They fell.”

Dan looked down after it. “What the—” He turned to Phil. “You mean you dropped them!”

“No! They fell.”

“All on their own?”

“Yes.”

“And you had no fault in it?”

“None at all.”

Dan didn’t question any further, just shook his head, turned around, and walked back into the apartment. “You better go and get them,” he called before disappearing into his bedroom.

Did he have to? Phil sighed. _Yes, he did_. He put on his shoes and took the elevator down. He hadn’t been ready to run into some of his downstairs neighbours, especially not when they asked him if those were his Christmas lights that had spooked the living daylights out of them.

“I’m so sorry. I’ll be more careful.”

Not that Phil had dropped the lights. They’d simply fallen. On their own. He was sticking to this story.

With the bundle of lights under his arm, Phil went back up. He stood in the elevator with a mum and her maybe eight-year-old daughter, who smiled wide pointing at the bunched-up strings.

“Are you going to put those up outside?” she asked.

Phil smiled. “That’s the plan, yes.”

The girl rocked on her heels – back and forth, back and forth. “It’s going to look so pretty,” she said with a wide gap-toothed grin.

Her mum put a hand on her head, smiling. “She really likes Christmas lights,” she said to Phil.

He laughed. “So do I! I just have to figure out how to get these up right.”

“They look all tangled up,” the girl said just before the elevator doors opened and they got off one floor lower.

Phil looked down at the lights. Yeah, they kind of were. He’d been trying to untangle them as he was putting them up, with all the consequences that entailed. Maybe untangling them first would have been a good idea.

With that in mind, Phil plunked himself down on the sofa. He found one end of the string, gave it a tug, and the whole thing tightened into even more of a knot.

“Nooo!” he whined.

When he heard Dan chuckle, Phil simply slumped forward, the lights digging in his stomach.

“’S not funny,” he muttered, face pressed into the sofa.

“Looks funny from where I’m standing.”

Phil turned his head to throw him a dirty look, but that was hard when Dan stood grinning next to him, arms crossed over his chest, and Phil was lying on a tangled clump of Christmas lights. He wasn’t sure which was the bigger mess in this situation – him or the lights. Eventually, he just groaned again.

“I’m only going to get them more tangled!” he said. Sure he would. He was the clumsiest person alive and had been setting himself up for disaster the moment he decided to put these lights up.

Dan tapped his shoulder. “Sit up. Let me help.”

Obeying, Phil straightened his back. Dan grabbed the ball of lights from his lap as he sat down as well. He tried to loosen the knot a bit first, sighed. “Are you even sure they still work after you dropped them?”

“They just fell!”

“Right, right. They fell. Got up on their little feet and jumped down the balcony. Nothing to do with your two left hands.” Dan waved it off dismissively. He handed one end to Phil. “Go plug this in.”

Luckily the lights had actually survived the drop— _fall_. They sparkled in Dan’s hands for just a moment before Phil unplugged them again.

Dan got to untangling them in silence, nimble fingers pulling one end through loop after loop. Slowly, the knot grew smaller and the end of string he handed Phil got longer.

“Be careful with that,” he’d warned Phil, who’d rolled his eyes in response. Of course he was careful. What did Dan take him for?

After what felt like forever, Dan got out the final knot. He leaned back on his hands. “Finally!” He threw his head back, probably didn’t want to see any more Christmas lights for the rest of the year. Or ever.

Phil had wrapped them up carefully now. He smiled wide. “Thanks!”

But as he got up from the sofa, Dan grabbed his wrist. “Wait. I’m helping you put them up.”

“No, I’ll be fine.”

Dan shook his head, pulled himself up by Phil’s arm. “No no no. I do not want to have to start over when they inevitably _somehow_ ” —he fixed Phil with a look— “fall down again.”

Phil wasn’t going to pretend he wasn’t right. _Fair enough_ , he thought.

As they strung the lights up on the railing of their balcony – and by ‘they’ he meant Dan was doing the stringing up while Phil just held the rest of the lights – the sun was already starting to set. Phil got lost in thought for a moment, watching a woman walking in the distance pushing a stroller, before Dan tugged at the lights.

“That’s the last of it,” Phil said. He let go of what little length remained.

Dan stepped back and nodded for Phil to plug the lights in. They flickered on, casting red and blue and green glows now that darkness had set in. He watched Dan nod appreciatively.

They both jumped a bit when a squeal sounded from right below them. Leaning over the railing, a little girl gave them both a thumbs up, which Phil returned. She was quickly called back in by her mother lest she might get sick.

“You know her?” Dan asked.

“Met her on the elevator earlier.”

Dan grinned. “Aw, Phil made a little friend.”

He pulled a face. “That sounds very inappropriate.”

“Oh, it does, doesn’t it?” Dan hid behind his hands. “Forget I said anything. Anyway, happy with your bleeding Christmas lights now?”

Phil clapped his hands together. “Very!”

“You better be,” Dan said with a grin. He headed back inside, waited for Phil to follow so he could close the door. He blew in his hands to warm them up again. “Now don’t go knocking those down again.”

Phil stomped his foot down, staring at Dan’s retreating back. “I didn’t drop them!”


End file.
